Rotor for rotary card-filing devices



June 5, 1956 H. L.. NElLsEN RoToR FOR ROTARY CARD-FILING DEVICES Filed 0G13. 23, 1953 INVENTOR. ffidam L. Nu sen Ro'roR FOR ROTARY CARD-FILING DEVICES Hildaur L. Neilsen, Metuchen, N. J., assigner to Zephyr American Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application October 23, 1953, Serial No. 387,970 4 claims. (ci. 12e-16) The present invention relates to an improved rotor for use as a part of a rotary card-tiling device and constitutes an improvement upon such device which is disclosed in my application, Serial No. 344,749, tiled March 26, 1953, now Patent No. 2,731,966.

In the mentioned prior application, a rotor is disclosed which consists of three substantially similar segments in the form of plates of sheet metal bent so that opposite side flanges are at an angle of 120 to each other. Such plates, when held together in the manner illustrated in the prior application, form a rotor which, in appearance and structure, is much like a paddle wheel. The means disclosed in said earlier application for holding the mentioned sheets of metal together in the form of a paddle wheel, consist of rings which extend about the said metal sheets. These rings are formed with peripheral beads designed to engage within somewhat complementally shaped slots of cards to hold such cards on the rotor in a circular stack, and the inner peripheries of said rings are formed with slots which engage the margins of the three metal plates of the paddle wheel to hold them rmly together.

One disadvantage in assembling three such plates to form such a paddle wheel rotor resides in the dilicuity involved in holding the three plates together properly while the mentioned rings are pushed into place. Even if separate or special jigs are provided to aid such an assembling operation, the results are not all that could be desired from the standpoint of eticiency and economy ot' production.

Another disadvantage ofthe Vstructure as illustrated in my mentioned earlier application is that the card carrying rings which serve to hold together the bent plates which form the paddle wheel portion of the rotor, do not hold those plates rigidly together, so that there is some objectionable shifting or skewing of the plates of the rotor relatively to each other, during the operation of the device.

Accordingly, an important object of 'the present invention is the provision of means by which a plurality of bent plates are held rigidly together to form a paddle wheel support for rings which carry a circular stack of cards associated therewith.

Another important object is the provision of such means which function not only for the stated purpose of holding a paddle wheel structure together very rigidly as a rotor but also as spacing means by which the ends of such a rotor are held spaced from adjacent casing portions of the device.

These and other more or less obvious objects 'are accomplished by the improvements of the present invention.

According to the present invention, means are provided for assembling the three bent plates into the form of a complete, rigid paddle wheel before the card holding rings are applied thereto. In thus completing the paddle wheel portion of the rotor, this invention makes use of F cleats in the nature of washers which must, in any event, be provided in the device at opposite ends of the rotor nited States Patent on the shaft on or with which the rotor turns. According to the present invention, such washers, conveniently or' circular shape, are used to clamp the three bent platesof the rotor together as a unit by bending in the peripheries of said washers at three removed points and by providing slots in such bent--in portions to receive tightly therewithin the end margins of the plates which constitute the paddle wheel rotor.

The accompanying drawing shows, for illustrative purposes, a single preferred embodiment of this invention without, however, limiting the invention to the particular disclosed embodiment.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a central, fronteto-back, vertical sectional View of a closed rotary card-tiling device, embodying therein a preferred form of means, according to this invention, for holding together three bent plates to form a paddle wheel portion of a rotor of such a card-ling device; the section being transverse with reference to the rotor and substantially on the line 'll-l of Fig. 2.

Fig.2 is a vertical sectional view, substantially on the line 2 2 of Fig. l, the device, however, being open.

Fig. 3 is an inner end elevational View of a bent washer such as is shown in Figs. l and 2 as means for holding the paddle wheel portion of the devices rotor in rigidly assembled condition.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of said washer substantially on the line 4 4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a side edge elevational View of the washer shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

The tiling device illustrated in the drawing comprises a rotor l0, carried by and turning with a shaft 12, which is journaled at opposite ends in side walis i4 of a 'casing or cabinet generally indicated at I6.

The casing 16 may advantageously be made of sheet metal and include, in addition to the side walls 14, a bottom 18, a back wall 2t) and a front wall 22. The device is also provided with a more or less semi-circular cover 24, having a semi-cylindrical outer wall 26 and opposite approximately semi-circular side Walls 28. The shaft 12 extends through the side walls 28 of the cover to hold the latter rotatably associated with the casing.

The wall 26 of the cover has a flange 30 at its forward end which engages the top edge of the front wall 22 of the casing to limit the closing movement of the cover, and engages the top edge of the casings back wall -20 to limit the covers movement to its open position indicated in broken lines in Fig. l. The ange 36 serves, also, as a finger piece by which the cover may be manipulated to close and open the device.

The rotor 10 consists of three similar segments, in the form of bent plates 32. They are bent longitudinally near their centers, ialong parallel lines, to form each plate into two side or wing portions 34 and an intermediate hub portion 36. When the plates 32 are brought together in the manner shown in the drawing, the wing portions 34Vof adjacent plates 32 lie intimately in face-toeface relationship to form webs or paddles of what has the appearance of a paddle wheel structure and, for convenience, is Vreferred to herein as a paddle wheel.

As best seen in Fig. l, the three intermediate hub portions 36 form a longitudinal, triangular passage 38 through which extends the shaft 12. The plates 32 Vare so formed that the shaft l2 fits quite tightly within the mentioned passage 38; however, in order to constrain the rotor to turn with the shaft7 the latter is formed with a longitudinally extending ilat 4t), andan elongate shim a2 is pressed into place between the inside surface of one of the hub portions 36 and the flat 40 on the shaft. So that the shaft and the rotor may readily be turned manually by the user of the device, the shaft extends from the casing 16 at opposite ends, and hand knobs 44, conveniently moulded of suitable plastic material, are held onto the ends of the shaft and against rotation relatively thereto, by means of set screws 46.

A pair of similar' card carrying rail rings 48 are thickened at their inner peripheries as at 50, to enhance their rigidity, and also are thickened into the form of beads 52 at their outer peripheries. These beads slidably lock within marginal notches 54 formed at the inner edges of cards 56, to be carried by the rotor, so that the cards may be positively retained in place on the rotor by the beads 52, but, nevertheless, may slide to some extent around said beads. Because the notches 54 are open notches and the cards are bendable, one or more cards can readily be removed and replaced in the device when desired.

The rail rings 48, as illustrated, are formed with internal lugs 58 having inwardly facing slots 60 which engage with a tight frictional fit upon the outer edges of the paddle wheel, and an outer edge or edges of the wing portions 34 of the bent plates 32 are preferably struck angularly away from the planes of said wing portions to form intermediate tongues 62 which limit the inward movement of the rail rings upon the paddle wheel. The tongues 62 preferably are so positioned and proportioned as to space the rail rings apart, to an extent corresponding to the spacing of the notches 54 of the cards.

The cleats in the nature of bent washers which, according to this invention, are employed to hold the bent plates 32 rigidly together are indicated generally at 64; Fig. 2 serving best to show that similar washers 64 are located at opposite ends of the paddle wheel. These washers have three equidistant chordal portions 66 each bent similarly approximately to an angle of 90 relatively to the general plane of the washer, and each of these bent chordal portions is bisected by being centrally slotted as at 68 to its full depth or, i. e., approximately to its said general plane.

The manner in which the bent washers 64 are associated with the bent plates 32 to hold them tightly together may best be understood from Fig.l in which the washers 64 shown therein is viewed as from its inner side, similarly to the showing of said washer in Fig. 3. The chordal portions 66 of said washers and, of course, the slots 68 therein face axially toward the center of the device. Each two intimately facing wing portions 34 of adjacent bent plates 32 extend together within a different slot 68 preferably with a tight fit which may be enhanced, if desired or necessary, by peening, dimpling or otherwise deforming or upsetting the material forming the washers chordal portions 66, in the immediate vicinity of said slot. to spread that material in such manner as to tend to narrow the slots 68 and thus cause the wing portions 34 of the bent plates to become firmly gripped between the two halves of the bisected chordal portions 66.

The flat portions, numbered 70, of the washers 64 function as washers or spacers to keep the rotor centered between the sides of the device, but, if desired, additional simple flat washers 72 may be carried by the shaft 12 between each bent washer 64 and adjacent side walls 2B of the devices cover to provide greater clearance between the rotor and the inside surfaces of the devices casing.

The shaft 12 extends through shaft holes 74 in the bent washers, which holes are only slightly larger than and complementally shaped with respect to the atted circular cross-sectional shape of the shaft, so that the bent washers function as a direct driving means by which rotation of the shaft, by turning of hand knobs 44, causes the rotor of the device to turn to bring to View any selected card in the circular card stack carried by the rotor. Obviously, when such a drive is provided through the bent washer, the central part of the shaft could be left completely circular in cross section and the shim 42 could be omitted. Conversely, if the shim is used to drive the shaft, the holes 74 may be circular, as no driving function would be required of the bent washers.

It should be obvious that, within the present inventive concept, the bent washers need not necessarily be of circular shape and/ or bent or slotted in the precise manner disclosed herein and, also, that the coaction between the bent washers and the bent rotor plates may be somewhat different than shown and described herein. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the structures disclosed herein but should be considered as of a scope substantially as set forth in the accompanying claims.

I claim:

l. ln a rotary card-filing device, rotary card-carrying means, supporting means coacting with said card-carrying means to support the latter for rotation about an axis of the latter, said card-carrying means comprising associated plural segments each having axially and radially extending wing portions which are relatively flat at a marginal portion at one end thereof and in intimate face-toface association with similar marginal portions of another of said segments, and a cleat coaxially disposed at one end of the axis of such an association of said segments, said cleat having plural, angularly spaced slots each embracing therewithin a different pair of such face-to-face marginal portions to hold said segments rigidly together.

2. In a rotary card-tiling device, rotary card-carrying means according to claim l, said cleat comprising a washer, of flat, relatively rigid material, having a substantially flat body portion, and a peripheral series of marginal members extending angularly to said body portion; said slots extending axially in said marginal members and opening at free edges of said members to adapt the cleat for axial movement into such embracing relationship relatively to said segments.

3. In a rotary card-tiling device, means for carrying and rotating a circular stack of cards therein, said means comprising a manually rotatable shaft, plural, substantially similar segments assembled in a series extending about said shaft and having substantially tlat end portions of adjacent segments in intimate face-to-face inter-association, and a washer on said shaft, at an end of said segment assembly, having a at body portion and integral pairs of spaced, circumferentially arranged tongues, extending axially inwardly at opposite sides of said intimately interassociated end portions in clamping engagement therewith to hold said segments in their mentioned assembled relationship about the shaft; the body portion of the washer having a non-circular hole therein and the shaft having a complementally non-circular portion extending through said hole to constrain the washer and the assembled segments to turn with said shaft.

4. The combination set forth in claim 3, further characterized in that said washer comprises a piece of flat metal, a circumferential series of chordal portions of which are similarly bent toward the same side of the washer substantially at a right angle to the general plane of the washer, each of said chordal portions being formed with a slot bisecting it to constitute each of said chordal portions as two tongues of one of said pairs.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 986,395 King Mar. 7, 1911 1,325,591 Stecker Dec. 23, 1919 1,758,062 Replogle May 13, 1930 2,385,838 Nygren Oct. 2, 1945 2,510,924 Bruen June 26, 1950 

